I saw Shinedown on Saturday night at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre. I typically listen to less hard rock acts but Shinedown qualifies as one of my exceptions. They have the majority of their fans tricked into buying their hardcore façade but they can’t fool me. From his platform, lead singer Brent Smith’s hovering stance over the standing room crowd didn’t intimidate me either.

Shinedown demonstrates a more mature form of aggression than their counterparts, as they don’t sing angry blame-casting songs like “I Hate You” by opening act Sick Puppies. They have a few beautiful piano ballads, including “Call Me” and they went acoustic on their single, “I Dare You.” Guitarist, Jasin Todd, had his acoustic guitar mounted at playing level and would simply let the electric guitar hang from his body as he transitioned between the two.

Smith seems to be a somewhat spiritual man who writes insightful lyrics and who, during “Burning Bright,” had us waving to his late grandmother in heaven. He had written the song in her memory. She was the person who inspired him the most and sadly she passed away before their first album was released. In addition, “Cyanide Sweet Tooth Suicide” is about a friend of his. A twenty-five year old friend whose untimely death occurred as the result of a drug overdose. Maybe it’s songs such as the latter that attract the deathpunk fashioned attendees who assume Shinedown’s calloused image.

Due to time limitation, Smith felt that the shorter than planned pause reduced the climactic effect of their reentrance for the encore of “Second Chance.” He wrapped it up by saying, “with Shinedown it’s never goodbye, it’s just until next time.”

Australia-based Sick Puppies have one song that I enjoy off of their latest album, Tri-Polar, called “Maybe.” I was glad they chose to play it for us. It was adorable to see frontman, Shimon Moore, gushing with appreciation seeming genuinely sincere when he said that we were making his dreams come true.

Slap-style bass player, Emma Anzai, accentuated her punk persona by casting a blowing fan on her long brown hair. Having discussed prior to the show the tendency for males to find girl bass players “hot,” my friend Eric (a.k.a Suave) confirmed that she was, in fact, “hot.” Our friend Maggie concurred and followed it up with “she knows she’s a bad ass. It makes me want to rush out right now and buy a guitar. And a fan.”

The St. Louis post-grunge group, Cavo, preceded Sick Puppies. No need to downplay your accomplishments fellas! Everyone who saw Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen exited the theatre to your song “Let It Go” in the credits and, though you chose to be modest, that is a big deal.

We missed most of the openning openning openning band performance by Adelitas Way, a five-piece rock group hailing from Las Vegas, Nevada.

12:45PM- The Virgins
Frontman Donald Cumming was wearing green eye shadow and, clearly apparent on the jumbotron, it was dripping down his face in the rain. They did most of their 2008 album with “Rich Girls” of course receiving the greatest of the applause.

1:20PM- Cotton Jones
I had reviewed this Maryland duo’s latest EP on Dryvetyme Onlyne at the end of August and was, therefore, eager to see them live. Whitney McGraw has a brilliantly peaceful complimenting voice to Michael Nau’s, who drastically altered the melody of “Nicotine Canary” from the album version.

2:00PM- MuteMath
Live samplings, rebounds, and drum and keyboard loops. A keytar and a homemade instrument named The Atari. DJ beats and frenzied drumming. I could go on but some of the instrumentation was occasionally too drawn out and a bit too much for me. Still, I was surprised that I had never paid much attention to MuteMath aside from learning that they were part of the  Twilight Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. I found them very talented and very exhilarating performers. Lead singer Paul Meany cried out his inability to “hold it together” in my favorite song of the set, “Burden.” Below please find the video for “Spotlight.”

3:00- The Airborne Toxic Event
There was definitely a sea of people gathered for this show. They attracted a larger crowd than Grizzly Bear, who positioned themselves near the back of their stage due to weather conditions. The Airborne Toxic Event sang “Goodbye Horses” by William Garvy just as they always do at live shows. In this case, however, they sang it in his memory as he recently passed away.

4:00PM- Citizen Cope
I had always been on the fence about whether I liked Citizen Cope or not. Saturday provided the confirmation I needed that, in fact, I do not like Citizen Cope. Moving on.

4:20- Flogging Molly
Having left Citizen Cope, I moseyed over to watch the Celtic-punk ensemble, Flogging Molly, and was swallowed up by stringed instruments.

5:00- Bon Iver
I was excited for my first opportunity to see Bon Iver (pronounced by Justin as bony-vair)  as he’s been at my fingertips on several occasions yet, unfortunately, just out of reach each time. So, nothing was stopping me. Not the mud up to my knees, not the clammy crowd surrounding me, and not even the fact that I could only see Justin Vernon from the big screen because I picked the wrong side of the stage to stand on.

6:00-The Zac Brown Band
Don’t pretend that you don’t like the song “Chicken Fried.”  If you’re a True Blood fan you may also want to refer to the second season episode 9, “I Will Rise Up” as Zac’s “Whiskey’s Gone” was featured there.

7:00- The Decemberists
It wasn’t my first time to witness “Hazards of Love” but it was every bit as good as the first, maybe even better. I lost myself in the story which immediately evaporated all sluggishness the weather had provoked.  I must give additional compliments to Shara Warden playing the Queen.